‘Sometimes some self-restraint has the most fantastic results…’
Now this is a recipe that turned my friends stomach when I first mentioned because a ‘broccoli mash’ just sounds like it’s not going to be great, does it? But believe me, the mash is a perfect contradiction of sweet against sharpness and has the consistency of – well, either a soft potato mash or a tougher mushy pea. Anybody that likes mush peas will certainly be down for a broccoli mash.
Where are the carbs you ask? Well I didn’t need any. If you feel like tossing up some potato cubes with some garlic oil and maybe a little thyme and roasting to go alongside this, then you go ahead and do that, but I was in one of my 5/2 eating phases and felt as though the broccoli mash gave me all the chew I needed.
The fish flesh is so perfect with this broccoli. Soft and flaky but steamed in a parcel of spiky rice wine to give it a bold smack in the mouth against the texture of the broccoli mash. I was half tempted to call this broccoli mash a broccoli puree but it’s almost definitely not a puree, is it?
This recipe is also super permissive. If you don’t have any rice wine, I’m sure adding some white wine won’t do any harm. It won’t have the spiky punch that rice wine has but it will still give you a nice liquor to pour over the finished product. The only thing I recommend is to keep the ginger in the recipe. This provides almost a zen like zing note to the combination that I can’t really replicate with anything else.
Preheat the oven to 200C. Slice the florets off of a head of broccoli and drop into a large pan of salted boiling water along with a handful of regular peas and cook until tender. Drain in a colander before running cold water over the florets to stop the cooking process. Drain well again before tipping into a food processor. Scoop in a tablespoon of coconut oil and a small dash of sour cream. Now add a small handful of fresh coriander and, some sea salt and sprinkle of pepper. Blitz this to a silky green ‘mash’. Return this to the dried pan that you boiled the broccoli and peas in and put to one side.
Place a piece of white fish (I chose haddock) on a big piece of foil and curl up the edges so that any poured on liquids don’t run. Sprinkle over some sea salt and scrunch over some black pepper. Grate in a small thumb sized piece of fresh ginger and pour in a shotglass full of rice wine. Scrunch the foil together to create a loose but tightly sealed foil package. Place in the oven for 20 minutes.
Ten minutes into the cooking time, put your broccoli and pea mash back on the hob and gently reheat. Once the fish has had its cooking time, serve both together and pour the ginger spiked rice wine over the fish and mash.
This one of my go-to’s when I’m on my 5/2 eating plan. All this means is that 5 days a week I make more… ‘sensible’ choices, and the other two I do what I want. And while throughout the week, sometimes all I want for dinner is an entire loaf of bread dipped in butter and rolled in Maldon salt, sometimes some self-restraint has the most fantastic results. This is one of them, and I swear you won’t miss a carb.
MIKEY AND THE KITCHEN. 